The present invention relates to an exercise device and, more particularly, to an exercise device for developing hand and arm muscles that are used extensively playing games, such as, golf, baseball, softball, tennis, bowling or the like.
Devices for exercising various muscles of the body have been suggested in the prior art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 113,384, 1,123,272, 1,539,569, 3,807,730. Such devices, generally including a pair of handles connected together by springs or other type resilient member, permit the user to develop forearm and chest muscles through a limited range of movements and exercises. However, such exercise devices have limited usefulness because they do not provide the same level of resistance throughout the entire range of motion during usage of such exercise device. Thus, such devices only permit the user to experience isotonic muscle development through a limited range of movement. Additionally, such devices do not include handle or hand engaging members which correspond to the gripping member actually utilized in the particular intended sport and, accordingly, do not provide any exercise for development of the hand and forearm muscles necessary to compete in such sports.
To overcome the difficulty of the above described prior art exercise devices, it has been suggested in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,848,234, 3,618,942 and 4,328,964 to utilize a single handle attached by some type of resilient means to a fixed wall structure. Such attachment to a fixed stationary object is designed to permit the user of such devices to exercise muscles through a limited range of movement. Again, such exercise devices only provide isotonic exercise results because they do not provide the same difficulty of resistance throughout the entire range of motion. Therefore, such devices provide only limited development of muscles.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,317 issued on July 21, 1987, there is disclosed an exercise device which permits an isokinetic exercise in that the maximum resistance is provided by the device for the hands and forearm muscles throughout the entire range of movement of the user of the device. The device comprises a pair of elongated handles having gripping portions thereon with the handles interconnected together at ends thereof by resilient members such as springs, rubber or elastic members, etc. The handles have spinner members which are freely rotatable in the ends of the handles and are adapted for the ready attachment of the elastic members to the handles so as to provide a variable isokinetic exercise device which provides maximum stress or resistance to muscle exercises over the entire range of movement of the exercise device.